


How Phil finally got a Cat or Why Dan and Phil really moved out of their first London Apartment

by sky_fish



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Cats, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Friendship, Humour, M/M, Mild Angst, Mild Language, Romance, a touch of fantasy, slice-of-life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 15:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15776763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_fish/pseuds/sky_fish
Summary: Dan said "no" to a cat already for a thousand times, but Phil still does not give up on the idea of getting a pet. The day after a severe fight over the  topic, Phil disappears and while Dan borders on another existential crisis, he finds an adorable black cat in their flat...





	How Phil finally got a Cat or Why Dan and Phil really moved out of their first London Apartment

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Niji, this prompt of yours is long due, I know, and finally, I managed to fulfil it. Sorry for the wait and please accept this as part of your birthday present :) I hope this fic is to your liking and beg you to be forgiving upon my first attempt on a phanfiction, since I'm not really experienced with them when it comes to writing or reading. You might not know the movie I referred to... but I hope you don't mind too much. Love ya ♥ *hugs*

It was Friday and usually, Dan would love Fridays, but today he wasn't so sure.  
   
Usually, it meant that he and his boyfriend Phil would have Chinese take-out for dinner and watch some series on Netflix together, as it had become a tradition ever since the two youtubers had moved to London. They would put on some clothes that looked a little nicer than the sweatpants they had worn for the whole day while doing nothing more than browsing the internet and brainstorming over new video ideas, and walk down the road next to each other to their favourite Chinese restaurant. There, they would carefully study the menu – just to end up ordering almost the same like last time anyway – and use the waiting time for a chat about how they would want to try cooking some Chinese food by themselves, _soon_ , which both of them knew actually meant it would never ever happen.  
   
Dan really liked this ritual, as he liked every little ritual that they had established in their relationship over the past few years. It gave him the feeling of security in his life, something stable, compared to his job, even if this only meant to have a proper dinner plan for Friday evenings.  
   
Today, though, things were different. From the usually calming and fun atmosphere between him and Phil was nothing left, because today was one of those days, on which Phil's mind had bitten itself into this _one_ specific idea that the young man just couldn't let go for the whole day, not even for a minute, and it drove Dan nuts.  
   
Whenever this happened, Phil could be, let's say _very_  annoying, especially, when he tried to convince Dan about something Dan didn't want. Phil started his persuading attempts early in the mornings, trying to be subtle (well, at least as subtle as Phil Lester could be) when bringing up a certain topic. Usually, during their "watching-anime-while-eating-breakfast-routine" (another routine, which Dan really loved, granted it did not get spoilt by anything), Phil considered it to be _the perfect time_ to bring up discussion topics. Although he knew Dan wouldn't be willing to listen to anything but their crunching cereals and the high-pitched Japanese voices of anime characters for about twenty to forty minutes, Phil thought that constantly bringing up his arguments in the background would make it easier for them to sift through Dan's brain. Maybe, one day, they would be stuck there, but so far, Dan could swear that it never worked like that.  
   
Phil always tried to make whatever he was talking about sound as positive and appealing as possible, in order to bring Dan into an open mind-set for it. If this didn't work – so, mostly, as Dan was cautious and sceptical by default – Phil would start creating scenarios and tell stories, until he was driving his boyfriend almost insane with his continuous insistency and sometimes pretty crazy argumentation.  
   
Recently, Phil's favourite idea was them getting a pet.  
   
It wasn't that Dan didn't like animals, he definitely did, even if he had learned to be careful with cheeky squirrels, however, there was a bunch of good reasons, why to deny his boyfriend the wish of becoming a pet owner. Wanting to play the bad guy was not even one of them. Still – no matter how reasonable Dan's argumentation was – Phil had not given up on his idea yet. And so, Dan was slowly but surely becoming very, _very_  annoyed, short-tempered and loud.  
   
With the evening approaching, Dan's nerves thinned out more and more, and he would have liked to go get his and Phil's Chinese dinner by himself just to spend a few minutes alone, but of course, Phil did not leave him alone and so, the annoyance went on.

"Come on, Dan," the young man said for the umpteenth time that day, not even stopping when the two had almost reached the Chinese restaurant. "I really want a-"

"No!"

"But, Dan!"

Obviously, Phil didn't care about arguing with his boyfriend in public, and if usually, Dan would have done anything to prevent such a thing, today he just didn't care. When he opened the restaurant's door – a wave of delicious smell hitting him, that strangely calmed him down, even if just for a second - and turned to his boyfriend for a second, Dan threw Phil a death glare.  
   
"No," he repeated his answer before he raised his eyebrows and wordlessly showed his boyfriend to go inside the restaurant first.  
   
Phil entered, but contrary to what Dan had hoped, he didn't shut up. "Dan! Come on! I REALLY-"  
   
"I said, NO!" Dan groaned, rolling his eyes.  
   
"But why –"  
    
"We talked about this a thousand times already, Phil," Dan cut in, sighing before listing his arguments once more, not caring about the looks they received from the other guests in the restaurant. "We are not capable of taking care of a pet. We barely manage to take care of ourselves! The extra food and vet's fees will be expensive too, we travel too much and the poor thing would be alone just too often – and no -," he lifted his hand just in time to mute Phil's upcoming protest, "- We can't bring it along while travelling, forget it – and the biggest problem is, we aren't even allowed to keep one in our flat!"  
   
"We can hide it," Obviously, this wasn't as much of a problem to Phil as it was to Dan. "And money isn't really an issue, is it?" OK, Phil might have a point there. "If you're not willing to contribute from our grocery budget, I'll pay for the pet food myself. I could try making some extra money with… I don't know, I could start painting and sell my creations online?"  
   
Dan snorted amused at his boyfriend's suggestion. This was a new idea and definitely unnecessary.

"Yeah, because you're such an incredibly gifted painter..."  
   
"Hey, don't diss my artistic skills," Phil furrowed his eyebrows at his boyfriend before he lifted his hand and started drawing into the air with his finger to illustrate his idea. "I'm sure, my fans would appreciate the effort. Imagine they would want to pay a few hundred dollars for a _Phil Lester_  "The lion-man on the dragon-winged unicorn riding towards sunset in a far away universe"… or something like that."  
   
"That sounds disturbing," Dan noted after he answered the friendly greeting of the shop owner's mother, a very cute and friendly elderly Chinese woman that helped out in the restaurant whenever she could. He took the two menus she gave him and handed one to Phil.  
   
"PJ would like it," Phil pouted as he opened the menu to check the restaurant's special offers.  
   
"PJ would _buy_  it," Dan added, probably speaking the truth. After a very quick glance at the menu, he turned to the Chinese woman and placed his order – of course, the same as always, but much faster than usual. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.  
   
"Oh come on… I know, deep inside your dark soul, you want a pet too, you need it, _we_  need it!" his boyfriend tried, a bit overdramatic and once again using his famous puppy eye technique. To put a cherry on top, he pursed his lips, cutely and lifted one hand, imitating a paw with his lose fist. "Meow?"  
   
Frustrated, Dan sighed again, rubbing his temples. "Hell, Phil, no, this is just irresponsible as fuck and may I remind you that you are even _allergic_  to cats?!"  
   
"And may I remind you that I said, that might be a reason not to get one, but not an obstacle?" Phil replied, crossing his arms. "I'll get used to it and build antibodies in no time, you'll see!"  
   
"I'll tell you that once more when you're lying on your death bed, suffocating slowly and painfully from cat fur blocking your trachea," Dan remarked, a dark vibe surrounding him. "Now place your order, I want to go back home and watch Netflix."

"And chill?" Phil grinned.

"No, definitely _no_ chill, today, Philip Michael Lester," Dan glared at his boyfriend.  
   
After pursing his lips for a moment of sulking, a broad smile lighted up Phil's face. "Wait... Is that a _yes_?" He cleared his throat. "To the pet I mean?"

"NO! Oh my God!" Dan turned to the woman who was still waiting patiently for Phil's order. "He takes the usual," he answered in his boyfriend's place, trying to look friendly when the woman took some notes, nodded and offered him a warm smile, the wrinkles around her eyes crinkling. The young man turned back to Phil. "If you could just shut up now for a few minutes until we get our food, this makes me feel very uncomfortable!"  
   
Phil shrugged. "Fine. But we're not over with this topic yet."  
   
"We're done, Phil," Dan groaned.  
   
"Oh, by the way, how about sharing some Wan-Tan as appetizer?" his boyfriend suddenly switched the topic. "Please add one serving of Wan-Tan, thank you!" he told the waitress, who nodded in reply.  
   
"Honestly, I don't even feel like sharing food with you today, Phil," Dan said unnerved, as he settled at a nearby empty table, placing his crossed arms on the tablecloth.  
   
"OK," Phil just said, pretending to be fine, even if his voice told that he was clearly not. "No problem, I can eat them all by myself!"  
   
For the whole next twenty minutes that they had to wait for their food, the two young men did not exchange a single word. The only _kind of_ conversation they held was when Dan groaned over a cat post Phil made on tumblr, rolling his eyes at him and Phil looked back with puppy eyes, just to be ignored by his boyfriend for the rest of their waiting time. The atmosphere was competing with the ice age, but Dan had to admit, he needed this frozen time to calm down his nerves. As much as he loved Phil, sometimes he was unbearable.

The nice old Chinese lady that brought their finally ready food to their table, smiled meaningfully at the two men before she handed the packed up bags to them. On top, there were placed to little packages of fortune cookies, in their typical golden-red coloured foil wrapping. Dan arched an eyebrow. He didn't order these...  
   
"Friends should not fight," the woman then said in a gentle voice, her Chinese accent giving her words a special colour. She pointed at the two little extras and smiled again, first at Dan, then at Phil. "Please, take fortune cookie as dessert. It's gift from our restaurant. Fortune cookies have special power, making people's dreams come true, if they strongly believe."  
   
"Really?!" Phil exclaimed, his blue eyes filled with sparkles. "Thank you!"  
   
"That's bullshit, Phil, and you know that!" Dan just intervened, rolling his eyes in disbelief, before he sent an apologetic smile at the Chinese woman.

She didn't seem to be bothered by the young man's doubts though, and just continued smiling, her almond shaped eyes forming friendly little crescents over her rosy cheeks and the crinkles of her skin telling about wisdom and years of experience.

"Anyway, thank you for the free cookies," Phil repeated before he finally took the bags and stood up, ready to leave. "We're taking them with pleasure. See you next week!"

After Dan also murmured his farewells, he followed his boyfriend outside, pushing his hands into his black trousers' pockets.  
   
"I don't even like fortune cookies…," the young man blubbered while catching up to walk right next to Phil.  
   
"They are for free! And I can eat yours if you don't want to have it," the older one generously offered.

"You'll get fat over all the Wan-Tans and fortune cookies," Dan stuck out his tongue at his boyfriend, hitting himself mentally for the childish reaction, as a blue pair of eyes just looked straight back at him.  
   
Still, Dan was so upset by his lover's behaviour of that day, that he didn't even think about apologizing and instead quickly reached out to snatch one of the small packages and threw Phil a displeased look, before he snorted.

"No, seriously, you don't deserve my dessert today!"   
   
Finally, there was a glint of disappointment and hurt in Phil's eyes, but he still didn't reply. Dan gulped when his heart constricted and he felt his throat becoming dry. Despite his stubbornness, he still felt the urge to apologize, but decided to press his point and just averted his look in favour of studying the edge of the pavement.

"What the Chinese grandma said sounds a little like _Freaky Friday_ , doesn't it?" Phil added after a few seconds, to keep their conversation going.

"Don't remind me on that movie, please, I'm still too disappointed about what Lindsay Lohan did to her career," Dan mumbled, ready to dismiss the upwelling memories of his childhood. "She was so talented..."

Phil giggled. "Sorry, I forgot she was one of your teenage crushes."

"She was _not_ ," Dan bitched.

"Dan… I saw you secretly throwing away a bunch of clippings with articles featuring her, as you finally got over her," Phil countered, but nodded with an understanding look in his eyes. "It's OK if you liked her. Other people did, too."

"Fine, whatever," his boyfriend rolled his eyes, slightly blushing. "I still think her music isn't that bad," he admitted.

"It's OK, no shaming, it's fine!" Phil said, suppressing the urge to wave his hand as he almost let their food drop.

"For God's sake, Phil, pay attention, would you?!" Dan exclaimed, already reaching at the bags to catch them if needed, but Phil managed to save the situation just in time.

"Whoops, sorry for that," he snickered, before returning to the topic. "To be honest, I really liked _Freaky Friday_."

Dan just murmured something inaudible, which Phil probably took as agreement. The man then suddenly made a strong thinking face before he darted a frowning look at the single fortune cookie package that he was still balancing on top of the food mountain he was carrying. His blue eyes widened, when he glanced to his side to meet Dan's sceptical look, but this didn't keep him from talking.

"Maybe these fortune cookies are somehow cursed by that Chinese lady, and when we eat them, we'll switch bodies, like Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, to find out what it's like to walk in each other's shoes and understand one another better - hey, why are you throwing it away?!" Phil sounded almost offended, when he watched Dan disposing his own sweet treat into a large garbage bin they just passed.

"That's bullshit!" Dan yelled, not caring about a couple crossing their way that turned to stare at him.

Phil narrowed his eyes and the corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk. "Are you scared?"  
   
Dan huffed, his lips slightly twitching before he shot back. "I'm not _scared_ , I don't believe in this shit!"  
   
"I know you believe in the supernatural, Dan, and it's OK to be scared of such things," Phil replied with an understanding look on his face, but Dan just blushed, unsure himself, if from embarrassment or anger.  
   
"The supernatural isn't the same like some old Disney movie so could you please stop that now?" he snapped.  
   
Phil pouted. "Still, you could have given the fortune cookie to me… I love them! You're not nice today, Dan."

Dan rolled his eyes in utter annoyance. "Oh, just shut up already!"  
   
Phil did, and Dan would almost feel sorry for his harsh words if he wasn't so stressed out. He and Phil exchanged one last silent look, before the younger man sped up his steps, leaving his boyfriend and their food behind. He was just too pissed off by the situation – his fight with Phil over the pet topic, and especially over the fact that despite he was getting so angry, it seemed like Phil didn't even recognise their _fight_ and just kept on being stupidly random.

"Sorry for not being _nice_  today," Dan murmured sarcastically to himself, stomping away.

\- - -  
   
Miraculously, Phil actually seemed to have decided to keep shutting up about the damned pet topic for a while. After Dan had left Phil to deal with their food in the kitchen, while he was up ahead getting dressed back in his most comfy black pants before slouching onto their couch in the living room and logging in to his Netflix account, Phil had stayed quiet. For the time they hat dinner and watched an episode of their recent favourite show, it was pleasingly quiet, except a few surprised interjections by Phil, commenting the happenings on the screen, which were absolutely acceptable, even if Dan's only reactions were humming.

Dan almost considered talking to his partner again, after the delicious Chinese food had warmed him up from inside and calmed his nerves. It was always impressive how good food influenced one's mood. Despite the situation, Phil had even nicely offered Dan one of his Wan-Tans and after two seconds of hesitation, the young man had accepted it and it tasted great, too. However, just when the young man wanted to reach out his hand shyly underneath the thin blanket Phil had spread over them, to connect with his boyfriend and make a piece-offering, Phil ruined everything.

"I wish for Dan to allow me having a cat!" Phil yelled so loudly that Dan almost jumped, after he had unwrapped and broken his fortune cookie in two pieces to free the small strip of paper from the inside. He pushed the crunchy treat inside his mouth and started chewing.

"Seriously?!" Dan exclaimed, sending his boyfriend the umpteenth death glare of the day, his hand long pulled back.

Phil, who did not seem to have noticed anything about Dan's advances, just shrugged, trying to form a smile when he showed the paper strip to Dan.

 _"If you strongly enough belief, wishs will come true for you,"_ it read in extremely crappy English.

"It's just like the Chinese lady told us," Phil mumbled between cookie crumbles, sending a few on top of their blanket and into Dan's hair. "Maybe, it works, I'm not giving up!"

With this, Dan had enough. He groaned frustrated one last time, rolled his eyes and then pushed back the blanket, freeing himself and jumping up from the couch. He scooped up his empty dishes from the coffee table, stomped out of the living room and dumped them in the kitchen, without even considering to put them into the dishwasher. When he stomped further, back into the corridor, heading for his room (yes, _his_ room, as he didn't plan to spend the night in their bed in Phil's room after what happened), his boyfriend showed up in the door way, giving him a concerned look.

"Oh Dan, come on...," Phil started, as if he knew exactly, what Dan was planning. He probably just knew him too well.

"No Phil, I reached my limit for today. I'm going into my room and I wish not to be disturbed. See you tomorrow," the younger man said.

He tried to sound as calm as possible but insistent enough to make his partner understand he was being serious before he turned around and left, dismissing Phil's slightly insecure "Good Night, Dan, I love you, OK?" that the other said behind his back. Dan didn't even wave his hand.

The young man switched on the lights in his room and closed the door behind him, before he allowed himself to take a few deep breaths. He closed his eyes and pressing his back against the door, started visualizing how his slow breathing brought him down from his pile of anger and frustration that he had collected over the day.

He had enough of fighting with Phil for one day. Maybe, tomorrow, Phil would have become reasonable again and they would be able to talk normally about the pet topic once more, but Dan just knew, if he had to spend the night lying beside this man, he wouldn't be able to get a wink of sleep. That was how upset and stressed out he felt at that moment.

Finally, Dan opened his eyes again and took in his surroundings.

His room looked just like a normal bed room, with a big bed – which was buried underneath newly bought merchandise and tons of other stuff at the moment -, his desk and the infamous butt chair that he occupied when working on his computer. There were a few books on a shelf, lots of useless but emotionally precious and decorative stuff, and the spooky old piano that had come as interior of their flat when he and Phil moved in. Honestly, this piano had been one of the reasons, why Dan and Phil eventually decided to sleep in Phil's room instead of Dan's, but probably, this was not the right time to think about what could actually creep out of the spooky instrument while Dan would be fast asleep. He would simply ignore it, anyway. He was good at ignoring issues, usually, if they didn't come in form of Phil harassing him for the whole day. Probably, he was just being over sensitive when it came to Phil, in general. He wanted them to lead a harmonious relationship and hated fighting with him, it just ticked him off. 

Admittedly, the view of the chaos on his bed didn't really look inviting, and it was much too early to go to bed anyway, as a quick glance at the time told him, so Dan should probably do something productive before going to sleep. For a moment, he even considered being diligent and use his accumulated negative energy to get some work done (venting his anger and turn it into something positive and creative, something he had learned from Phil).

As soon as he switched on his computer, though, he immediately landed on tumblr, wasting the next couple of hours of his life with scrolling down a wild mixture of pictures and quotes from several fandoms that he followed, trying his best to avoid any spoiler material, and some cute animal pictures mixed in between. Yes, even cat pictures and he had no problem to admit that he liked them, it just didn't meant hat he had to own one by himself. 

Dan did regret nothing, when he was rewarded with a super cute shiba inu puppy collage at the end of his tumblr trip, but he groaned, when he realized how fast time had passed. It was just then, when he acknowledged, that – contrary to how it would normally have happened – Phil had not shown up in front of his door to check on him, yet. He also had not updated any of his social media in hours, said a quick check, and after listening to the silence from the flat, Dan concluded, that Phil also wasn't watching TV anymore. Probably, he had gone to bed, without attempting to make up with Dan. 

There was a slight sting in Dan's heart at that thought, and for a moment, he felt incredibly alone and misunderstood by the whole world.

Well, honestly, what did he expect? He had made his position clear, and he should be grateful for his boyfriend to actually accept his wishes and boundaries for once, shouldn't he? Maybe, Phil had even finally accepted Dan's point of view and was reflecting over it in his own room.

Still, Dan was disappointed. He and Phil used to bicker more often than not, without any deeper meaning, but it didn't happen often, that they had a severe fight and ended up spending the night apart from each other. For a moment, Dan felt the urge to get up and go find Phil, say sorry for his bitchy attitude, cuddle up to him underneath their blanket and fall asleep in his arms, like he did so often. However, when he remembered Phil's annoying insistence throughout the whole day, he felt like continuing being stubborn was more of the appropriate reaction to the situation. Yes, very mature.

Sulking, Dan shut down his computer before he turned to face the quest on top of his bed, which he eventually decided to clear by dauntlessly reaching out and pushing everything that didn't look like a pillow and blanket onto the floor right next to the bed. It wasn't the best solution, but it would do for the night, the young man nodded to himself, before he sneaked out of his room to go to the bathroom and get ready for bed. He caught himself once more perking up his ears, but there was nothing left that hinted on Phil still being awake. He sighed, but accepted the situation as it was. Tomorrow, everything would look different, most likely.

It took Dan a while to finally fall asleep, as he was tossing and turning underneath his sheets, not finding quite the perfect sleeping position (he was missing his second pillow, aka Phil) but then, after what felt like an eternity, the tiredness overwhelmed him and he finally slipped into dreamland. Yes, his brain told him once more, last thing before he was gone, tomorrow, everything would be fine again.

\- - -  
   
Things were absolutely _not_ fine, Dan had to find out on the next morning. They were so off from being fine, that waking up in the eye of a tornado would rather have been fine for Dan than the actual situation.

In short, Phil was gone.

After Dan had waited for almost an hour for his boyfriend to show up for breakfast and watch an anime episode (he even had prepared a bowl of _his own_ cereal to give it to Phil, which he considered as generous), he had finally gotten up to go find him. 

He wasn't successful. Phil wasn't in the bathroom, he was neither sleeping in his room, nor was he in their gaming room upstairs. He wasn't doing anything like hanging up the laundry on the balcony or things like that, and there was no scribbled note on the kitchen counter or stuck to the fridge, announcing that he had dropped out to go run some errands. Nothing.

"Phil?" Dan tried once more calling out for his boyfriend during his second round through their flat. "Phil! This is not funny, where the heck are you?"

Still, he didn't receive any reply.

Phil couldn't be hiding somewhere, could he? Dan frowned. Not even Phil was _that_ childish, was he? OK, sometimes he was, but when Dan pushed away the curtains in the corner of Phil's room, there was nothing behind them except the gigantic Totoro plush toy that Phil got from PJ last Christmas, and he could also not find him sulking in his closet.

Dan frowned again, harder. Could Phil have gone for a walk? He snorted and shook his head despite himself. As if! Since Pokémon Go had long lost its appeal to the two men, it was rather likely that Phil was abducted by aliens, than him going outside for any kind of physical activity by his own will. That was if he wasn't abducted by aliens, brainwashed, and _then_ decided to go outside for physical activity.

Despite the stupidity of the idea, double-checking wouldn't hurt, Dan thought, so he hurried downstairs, just to find the shoes Phil had worn yesterday still sitting in the entrance area, the same way he had dumped them there. 

Upstairs again, Dan glanced worriedly through the suddenly very long and empty appearing corridor. He swallowed hard.

"Phil?"

Again, he didn't get an answer, not even the echo he almost had expected falling back from the empty flat. His heart cringed and Dan took a deep breath. Well, what other possibility was left, than Phil having gone outside in a different pair of shoes to... do whatever? It was possible that he was pissed at Dan and had decided not to leave a message, but surely, he would be back in no time, right?

Back in the living room, Dan attempted eating the rest of his now much too squishy cereals, but his appetite was gone completely. He stared at the TV screen in front of him, the episode of the anime he had chosen on Crunchyroll still waiting to be played, but without Phil, it seemed completely meaningless to watch it. Dan turned off the device. He leaned against the backrest of the couch, his body moulding itself perfectly into his personalised sofa crease, and it was almost as if the furniture was embracing Dan to comfort him. Still, he felt lonely.

Dan's thoughts started spinning, running wild. What if Phil was really _gone_ and had left him for good? Would he ever want to come back? What if the day of doom had finally come? What if Dan had finally managed to push away the only person on this whole god damned planet, that had accepted him, embraced him, and learned to love him just the weird and eccentric way he was? What if he had been bitchy just one time too often for Phil to longer deal with it, to longer care, to make him decide that in the end, they didn't work out together after all? What, if Dan had lost the only person outside his family, that he had ever truly loved?

Dan was about to tear up and the black spiral in his mind and heart was dragging him deeper and deeper, when a terribly loud noise pulled him out of his thoughts.

He was sitting up straight, quicker than he ever imagined his lazy body being able to move, his head turned and his eyes widened, his heart beating faster. That was coming from the kitchen, wasn't it? Was it Phil? Was he back?

"Phil?" Dan yelled hopefully, his voice sounding unstable and throaty.

But still, he didn't receive any reply. Damned.

The young man was about to stand up and go check on Phil in the kitchen, when another loud noise occurred followed by another and another. Dan froze. It sounded like someone was rummaging in the kitchen, but knowing Phil and all of his possible emotional states since years, Dan was certain, that it was very unlikely that his boyfriend was venting his anger by attempting to destroy their kitchen. No matter how angry or frustrated Phil became, he never became aggressive or destructive. Ever!

Another idea hit Dan. What, if there was a burglar in their kitchen?! Even if Dan had no idea what some stranger might hope to find in their kitchen to be steal-worthy – OK, that dangerous set of Japanese cooking knives Phil's parents gave them as a house warming gift looked pretty expensive - there was no other possibility than it being a burglar, right?

Quickly, Dan scanned his surroundings for something he could take and bring to defend himself with, but the living room did not really turn out to be a room equipped with anything useful to scare someone off. Due to the lack of better ideas, Dan took out the plastic bag from the rubbish bin he found underneath the living room table. The bin itself, which was made of a see-through net of... steal seemed to be a good weapon? He hoped.

Dan's knees felt like jelly when the young man braced himself and finally stepped out of the living room into the corridor, trying his best to make his legs move towards the kitchen. He was holding the empty rubbish bin high up over his head, ready to hit whoever or whatever might get at him, if necessary.

Releasing a cry of attack, Dan finally jumped over the threshold of the kitchen, surprised by his own braveness. The noises died immediately. Dan waited for a few moments, his hitching breath everything he could hear. He frowned. He didn't understand…

There was no one to be seen in the kitchen, but the kitchen looked like ransacked, food packages and ruined plates spread all over the floor, the oven opened, just like a bunch of drawers. Frowning even more, Dan stepped forward again to watch a bit closer in case someone was hiding somewhere, just to realise that more than a break-in, this chaos rather looked like someone _very_ hungry had run berserk.

For a second, Dan saw something small and black in the corner of his eyes. He turned quickly, bracing his fingers around the edge of the bin that he was still carrying, but whatever he had spotted - an animal? A monster?! - it was gone as fast as it had appeared. Dan let his eyes wander over the floor, trying to scan every square centimetre of the tiled floor. There it was, a black blob he wasn't able to identify, but within a split of a second, it was gone again.

It was quick! Almost as quick as Dan's reflexes that he unleashed from the panic running through his veins right that moment. With the squeal of a horrified girl (pretty much how he felt like, right in that very moment), Dan blindly threw the bin forward, before he ran out of the kitchen and hid behind the door frame, still squinting his eyes.

When the fading noise of the bin indicated the stopping of the item's movements, Dan was still too scared to open his eyes. Whatever there had been in the kitchen, he hoped he had scared it away. After a few more seconds of silence, he heard a new noise, some kind of _scratching_ followed by something he had least expected in this kind of situation.

A meow.

Dan snapped his eyes open, and frowning, he searched for the source of that noise. Had he heard right? There, it was the same noise again. And again, forming a stream of desperate cries released by something that unmistakably sounded like a cat.

Finally enabling his jelly knees to resume working, Dan entered the kitchen again, slowly and carefully, until he spotted the bin he had thrown at the _thing_ standing there, upside down, and the _thing_ apparently trapped underneath. There was that scratching noise again, the bin was slightly shaking, almost freaking Dan out, and more meowing.

Slowly, Dan approached the trap he had unintentionally created, and knelt down in front of it to have a better look through the delicate net of steal, until he could finally identify with his own eyes what he had already expected to find. Dan sighed, a rock falling off his chest. It was just a cat. It was really just a cat.

"Gosh, you almost scared me to death, you damned little rascal!" the young man exclaimed, finally completely relaxing his tense body.

"Meow!" the small ball of black fur cried pitifully.

"What are you even doing here?!" Dan continued. "Searching for food? We don't have cat food, you're not even supposed to be here!"

Then, it dawned him. Damned. Did Phil _actually_ secretly get a cat inside their flat, although Dan had so strongly opposed the idea of getting one? He groaned, rolling his head to the back of his neck.

It all did make sense now. Phil was probably outside getting some cat food and other supplies, and _of course_ he wouldn't tell Dan in advance or leave a message, as he must fear to get beheaded by his boyfriend as soon as he stepped back into their flat. Which was a scenario pretty likely to happen, considering the ball of anger that reoccurred in Dan's stomach now.

"God damned, PHIL!" the young man yelled up to the kitchen ceiling, frustrated.

"Meow!" the cat demanded attention.

Dan looked through the bin again, taking in the features of the animal. It had raven black fur (for a silly moment, Dan wondered if a cat would feel offended if it found out that someone compared its colour with a bird), and incredibly beautiful blue eyes that reminded Dan of the ocean. And Phil.

The cat just stared back at Dan for a few seconds. Then, it _sneezed_.

"Bless you!" Dan said surprised, without even thinking.

"Meow!"

Finally, Dan gave in, so he reached out to lift the bin from the ground and free the small fur ball, which immediately bolted out of the kitchen to somewhere else in the flat, as if it was scared by Dan. Well, after what happened, he couldn't blame the poor thing. To his defence, though – he had been scared too! Thankfully, he didn't seem to have hurt the cat in his panic, at least.

Deciding that it was of no help to blame the poor little guy for whatever plan Phil had come up with, Dan started clearing the chaos in the kitchen, throwing away the crashed plates and glasses, and picking up a bunch of food boxes (including the package of his favourite cereals, which looked like the cat had already started to bite open one edge of the carton).

"You already picked up one of Phil's bad habits!" he yelled after the fugitive cat. "Paws off my cereal, you hear me?"

Dan listened, as if he was expecting to hear a small guilty "meow" as reply, but there was nothing, so he just sighed and got back to work.

\- - -

"Rascal," Dan said, looking straight into the small black cat's face, when the animal finally decided that the situation was safe enough to come into the living room from whatever hiding place it had been in, and join the young man.

Dan didn't know if the animal actually wanted to accompany him, or if it was just back looking for food, but he didn't mind when it jumped onto the couch and sat right next to him, looking at him with its big round eyes. It slightly tilted its head, as if wondering what Dan was talking about, and if he was actually talking to it.

"That's how I'm going to call you for as long as you're here. Rascal. You're a boy, aren't you?"

Dan nodded to himself, deciding that his assumption was correct, even if he hadn't checked yet. He had spent the time loafing on the couch with his laptop in his usual browsing position, but rather than working on his current video plan, he had occupied his thoughts with the question of how he should address the cat for the time being. After all, he had no idea how Phil had decided to name it, and even if he had no intention to keep the pet, it was a bit stupid to just call it "cat", right? So, Rascal it was. Maybe not the most innovative name either, but secretly, Dan even thought that there was actually something cute about it.

"So what am I supposed to do with you now?" Dan wondered aloud after a glance at the digital clock of his computer. It was already in the middle of the afternoon, and there was still no sight of Phil. "I can't just throw you out onto the streets... I'm not _that_ heartless. But where is Phil, shouldn't he be long back by now? How long can it even take him to buy some things? Also, I have to find out where he took you from so that we can bring you back." While Dan kept on rambling, the cat started meowing and moving towards Dan, putting its tiny paws on his thigh, as if it wanted to climb on his lap. Gently, but determined, Dan brushed it away. "Why am I even talking to you, it's not like you can understand me, do you?"

Again, the cat meowed – just to be interrupted by a sneeze – and kept on meowing, as if something was terribly wrong. Dan frowned slightly, before he finally got an idea.

"Ah... I guess you're really hungry, aren't you?" he asked, putting away his laptop and finally allowing the cat to jump on his lap.

Immediately, the cat started purring and craning its neck to reach Dan's face with its cute little nose. Dan giggled at the slightly wet and tickling touch, before he started stroking Rascal's fur.

"Hm...," he continued. "What can I give you to eat... I guess you prefer meat over vegetables? Not that he have that many vegetables... I think we have some chicken left in the fridge. You want that?"

"Meow!"

Rascal seemed to agree, and so, Dan stood up and carefully put the cat on the floor, which immediately followed him into the kitchen. Halfway, it even overtook him and reached their goal first, just to stop in front of the fridge and cry and meow like crazy, until Dan opened it and shortly after put a small Tupperware container with a piece of chicken onto the kitchen table. He was about to get a knife from the drawer to slice up the piece of meat, when the cat jumped onto the kitchen surface and started sneaking around the small container, as if it knew exactly what was in there.

"Give me two minutes, will you?!" Dan scolded the small animal, slightly pushing it away. "And get down from here!"

When Dan finally had finished he placed a small plate filled with sliced chicken meat on the floor, Rascal rubbed his head appreciating against Dan's hand, before digging in loudly, a mix of purring and smacking filling the kitchen. Dan couldn't help but grin widely at the sight of the excited animal. It was simply adorable. He forced himself to stop smiling upon that thought. 

"Better, never let Phil know about that," Dan murmured, shaking his head.

Talking about Phil, Dan's thoughts immediately returned to his lover. Where the heck was that guy?! Dan checked the time once more, and he had to admit, if he was angry at his boyfriend or not, the longer it took him to get back home, the more Dan got worried, too.

Finally, the idea, that he could simply _call_ or text Phil, popped up in Dan's mind. He ironically congratulated himself on that brilliant idea while he pulled his cell phone out from his trousers' pockets and speed dialled Phil's number. He waited. There was the ringing tone. But no Phil picked up, not even after several times of ringing, so Dan gave up.

"Crap...," he cursed, trying once more, but still without success, so he decided to send him an angry text message instead. Or maybe two. And an angry emoticon.

Rascal had already finished his plate of chicken and started to clean his face by licking his paw and brushing it over his nose and mouth. When he finished, sneezing one more time in the end of the process (slowly, Dan started wondering if the cat was sick, or allergic to something in their flat), it sat right in front of Dan and looked up at him, starting to meow again. 

"You already had some food!"

"Meow!"

Not really knowing how to handle the situation and clueless on how to silent the cat, in the end, Dan just continued talking to it.

"You know, I thought Phil's off buying you some food, but he doesn't come back, isn't that irresponsible? That's why I told him we can't have a pet," he ranted.

The cat suddenly stopped meowing all together, and Dan wasn't sure if he was imagining things, but Rascal kind of looked like he was feeling bad about being scolded. He stepped back from Dan, ears sloping, before he turned and ran out of the kitchen.

"Aw, wait, I'm not talking about you," Dan quickly tried to set right, just to find himself thinking how ridiculous all of this was. As if he needed to justify himself in front of a cat... Nevertheless, he followed the small animal.

To his surprise, the cat ran into Phil's room dead on target, quickly jumped onto the blue-green patterned bed sheets and then disappeared underneath the blanket, only its cute tail showing until it vanished completely. A small bulk was the only thing indicating its position now. Dan came closer, sighing in disbelief. Could a cat really be so upset that it retreated to such an extent? It was absurd…

However, soon after, Rascal showed up again, peaking his head out from underneath the blanket, meowing. Dan wondered what might be wrong and stepped forward, reaching at the fabric to pull it back. What he discovered then, had him frowning.

Lying underneath the blanket, there was Phil's pyjama, arranged almost as if he had laid it there to form his body shape, and next to it, there was his boyfriend's phone. Without hesitation, Dan snatched it, switching on the screen. As assumed, the phone was on silent, and as expected, there was a ton of notifications for unread messages and missed phone calls. So Phil had not only not left a message on his whereabouts, he _also_ had managed to forget his phone! Great.

"Phil, what are you doing?" Dan murmured, shaking his head slightly. "Come back home already, you idiot!"

Groaning loudly, he dropped Phil's phone back on the bed, letting himself drop on top of the blanket, too. He lay on his back, staring up to the ceiling, while the cat meowed again, lumbering over the soft fabric towards Dan, looked at him as if hesitating for a minute and then climbed on top of him.

Dan lifted his head a little to see better how the black fur ball curled up on top of his chest and started purring again, almost as if it wanted to assure Dan that he at least wasn't alone. The young man couldn't help but lift his hand and started brushing it's fur. It felt incredibly soft underneath his fingers, and – he wouldn't have wanted to admit it in front of Phil, but – it felt very good and soothing to run his hand over the little fluffy body again and again, while the small vibrating movements of the purring cat strangely calmed him down.

\- - -

Dan only realized that he had drifted off into a nap, when he startled awake, sitting up so quickly, that the cat, who was still resting on top of him, jumped away in surprise and directed a protesting meow at him. The young man, though, was busy catching up with breathing while he tried to fight the horrific pictures of his dream – no, _nightmare_ – away. The images started to blur, mixing together and fading away, but Dan still could remember a few things that he had been dreaming about.

There had been the old lady from the Chinese restaurant with her fortune cookies – ridiculously huge fortune cookies, at least in Dan's dream. And there had been Phil who had been talking to him about something Dan couldn't remember, laughing at him, before his body started to deform, like in one of those science fiction alien movies. He had been growing bigger and bigger, his body starting to get covered in _fur_ until he looked like a gigantic beast, even if Dan wasn't quite able to remember the face of the monster anymore. He only could remember those large, snakelike eyes, as wonderfully blue as Phil's eyes were, but filled with vertical, almond-shaped black pupil staring at him. The monster had jumped at him and – Dan couldn't remember what had followed next.

"What the hell was that...," he murmured, as more and more details of the dream were being buried in oblivion.

The cat jumped onto the bed again, seemingly not scared anymore, and walked towards Dan, looking at him with its blue eyes, filled with vertical, almond-shaped pupils... Dan blinked a few times and when a very strange thought crossed his mind, he just started laughing hysterically, making the cat look at him, ears pointy and eyes widened in shock.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you," Dan finally said, catching a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye.

He patted on his lap to indicate Rascal that he could come back to him if he wanted, and so the cat did, immediately rubbing its head against Dan's hands. It was a heart melting gesture, somehow, and the young man had to admit, that he liked it, feeling the soft fur against his skin, the slight pressure from the head rubbing against his hand, the purring of the cat that became louder and louder the more he brushed its fur. Yeah, this cat was really incredibly cute.

Dan smiled, and his weird dream was quickly forgotten.

\- - -

When Phil still did not show up back home in the evening, it wasn't of any help anymore, though, to have a fluffy purring cat sitting next to him while watching some YouTube videos. Dan slowly but surely returned to panic mode.

Was Phil really outside to get some cat food or had he gone somewhere to just get away from Dan? He didn't know what else to do, so Dan finally started texting some of his and Phil's friends (also considering if Phil might have travelled home to his parents, but he waived the idea off as he doubted that the man would go so far north just because of a fight with his lover). However, replies took time, and the ones he got so far were all negative. It was driving him mad.

 _"Maybe, this is my punishment...,"_ Dan thought, staring at the Smart TV Screen's YouTube app without paying proper attention to the video he was currently watching. _"Phil disappeared from my life and as if to remind me on the reason why, he left that cat behind..._ Wait, does this even make sense?" he ended up arguing aloud with his own thoughts.

Looking at Rascal, who had made himself comfortable on the sofa, sleeping again, Dan frowned. He remembered bits of his strange dream from before. No. It just couldn't be… that would be too crazy. Or maybe… was he _still_ dreaming and everything about missing Phil and the unexpected appearance of Rascal were actually was just a _dream_?

Dan stupidly reached out his hand towards Rascal, burying his fingers in the soft black fur, as if he wanted to make sure, if he could actually _feel_ the cat he was probably dreaming about. He could. He pinched himself into the cheek, and as expected, it hurt. He cursed.

Probably, he wasn't dreaming, after all. But if he was actually not dreaming, he might have to start worrying about what he should offer the small cat for dinner, shouldn't he? The chicken from lunch was gone, and there wasn't much else suitable for cats in the flat. So maybe – if Phil really decided not to show up so soon - _Dan_ would need to go down to the next supermarket and pick up some cat food.

He jumped up and went searching for his wallet which he found lying on the living room table, quickly said "Be a good boy, I'll be right back," to sleeping Rascal, and off he was.

It took him longer to decide which kind of food he should buy, than the walk to the grocery store, as Dan found himself confronted with a full isle just filled with dog and cat food that he didn't even remember having seen anytime before. Well, that happened if you passed certain isles each and every time without looking, just because you didn't need specific things. But in fact, there was an impressive choice of brands and types of food (canned food, dry food, snacks in every flavour and shape), and Dan felt quite overwhelmed.

In the end and after considering his already known likings of Rascal – which was limited on that he seemed to have enjoyed the chicken meat for lunch – Dan chose a bunch of cans of jellied food with chicken in it, and a small bag of cat snacks just for a little extra treat. Since he went to the store without thinking of a bag to transport it back, he ended up taking one of the look through plastic bags the shop keeper offered him for a few pence, and quickly went home, ready to prepare dinner for little Rascal. He was standing in front of his house in record time, fumbling with his keys, when the unexpected happened.

"Good evening, Mr. Howell," a familiar voice sounded in Dan's ear, and the young man froze on the spot when he turned right and faced an elderly woman with white hair, who was about to enter the flat right next to his and Phil's. His _lovely_ landlady…

She came a few steps closer, while Dan's hand had started moving again and he managed to unlock the door. He pushed it open and was about to enter, maybe, if he just pretended to not have seen or heard anything...

"Mr. Howell, wait!" 

Dan cursed silently. Of course, this wouldn't work, what was he even thinking? So he did what everyone in his situation would do – he turned around again, with a smile on his face, and played innocent.

"Oh, Mrs. Walsh, are you talking to me?" Dan said with a nervous giggle underlying his voice.

The elderly woman pressed her thin, wrinkly lips together and slowly shook her head in disbelief.

"How many Mr. Howells do you think I am renting flats to?" she asked, her words dripping from irony.

Dan would maybe have appreciated it, if he wasn't in such a precarious situation right now.

"I'm so sorry, I was in thoughts…," he said as an excuse for his impolite behaviour, while he tried to quickly hide his shopping bag, but apparently, it was too late already.

The landlady craned her neck to look behind Dan's back before she threw him a critical look, raising one of her thin grey eyebrows. "Is that cat food that you are carrying here?"

"Uhm…," Dan pressed his lips together.

"Don't tell me, you and Mr. Lester got a cat up there?!" the old woman started, her voice turning somewhat hysteric.

Dan laughed, waving with one of his hands.

"What? Nooo, of course not. This cat food here… it's a present for a dear friend of ours," he patted himself on the shoulder, mentally, she just _had_ to buy this excuse. Dan kept on talking, trying to sound more confident. "You know, her cat recently got babies and we wanted to contribute something to the new family members."

The woman increased the frown on her wrinkly forehead, but apparently she seemed to believe Dan. For now.

"Well, that's very kind of you."

"Are we ever something else than kind, Mrs. Walsh?" Dan gave back, forcing himself to flash her his most friendly fake smile, showing almost the full upper row of his teeth.

Another critical look hit him, before the landlady continued. "I do hope that this cat food is _really_ just a present for your dear friend, Mr. Howell! You know the consequences of what will happen if there are any animals in my flats, just as a kind reminder."

Dan nodded heavily. "Yes, of course, Mrs. Walsh. Don't worry, Mrs. Walsh. Thank you, Mrs. Walsh."

"Good night then and greetings to Mr. Lester," the woman ended their conversation with a last frown on her face, and Dan wondered if he had repeated her name a bit too often, and if she really would not suspect him any longer.

"Thanks, greetings to Mr. Walsh," he decided to play along. "Good night."

And with that, he vanished inside, running up the stairs right into the kitchen, before he allowed himself to exhale loudly.

So much to the possibility of _hiding a pet_ , like Phil had suggested. It was just too risky, there was a cat in their flat for not even one single day, and Dan had already almost been found out by their landlady! 

He repeated his thoughts again. This was too risky! Probably, Dan should already better start searching for a new flat, just in case Mrs. Walsh planned to drive him and Phil out of the house.

\- - -

Forgetting about the risk that Mrs. Walsh, who was living with her husband in the flat right next to Dan and Phil's, could maybe try and do some eavesdropping at their walls and might be able to hear anything strange and unusual through those almost paper thin building constructions, Dan called out for Rascal after placing the shopping bag on top of the kitchen counter. He searched for a small plate and started putting some of the canned cat food he had brought home onto it, placing it on the floor at the same stop at which he had put the cat's brunch today, and waited, but no one came.

"Rascal?" Dan tried again, just to realise that since he had entered the flat again, he had not seen the cat. "Where are you?"

As if it was meant to be a reply, Dan suddenly heard something from downstairs – the bathroom? - that sounded like a splash, followed by hysteric meowing. What the heck?!

He rushed downstairs, just to find a black little bundle coming out of the bathroom, crouching close to the floor, its fur soaking wet.

"Rascal?!" Dan goggled at the animal in disbelief. "What the hell did you do, for God's sake, you're drenched!"

The cat meowed, followed by a sneeze, and Dan could see its little body shaking, so he dashed into the bathroom and grabbed the nearest towel he could find. He headed out of the room again and caught the black cat to wrap it into the warm cloth. He started rubbing the wet fur, worried that the poor thing could have caught a cold from whatever he was up to do... when Dan suddenly had an idea of what exactly that might have been.

He turned around; the half-dried fur ball wrapped in the towel still on his arms, and took a closer look at the bathroom. There was a wet pit on the floor right in front of the toilet, and the toilet seat was sprinkled with water. The young man frowned, looking at the cat and then back to the toilet.

"Did you…," he frowned at the cat. "Did you try to use the toilet?!"

He probably should have seen it coming, well, not that the little cat would try to use a _human_ toilet, but that sooner or later, the animal would need to "do its business", and of course, there was no cat toilet in the house. In fact, Dan could call himself lucky if the cat didn't wet their couch or any of the beds.

He carefully put Rascal down and kept drying the cat's fur for a few more seconds. Then, - cursing at non-present Phil for not having fully thought through his plan, he started searching for _something_ they could use for the poor little guy to pee into, and luckily, he found a rather big but low plastic box which he put underneath the sink. He went to get some old newspapers from the paper waste and sitting cross-legged on the bathroom floor he started tearing the pages apart into strips as fast as he could, to create improvised cat litter. Curiously, the cat – almost dried - had found its place sitting right next to Dan, staring at him performing his task, as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"It's done!" Dan announced once he threw the last few paper strips into the plastic box, flashing Rascal a broad smile.

As if it had been waiting for a "Go", the cat walked up to its new toilet, examining it thoroughly one last time. It carefully climbed over the low frame of the box and set its paw onto the soft pile of paper strips. There was a small – agreeing – purr, but before the cat went on "doing it's business" it stared back at Dan and meowed, as if it wanted him to leave.

"OK, OK, sorry, I didn't want to disturb you," the young man chuckled, holding up his hands in defence before he got up and out of the bathroom to give the little cat some privacy.

Still, he decided to wait in the corridor, just to make sure that everything would work out. He knew this was just a substitute, and real cat litter would be much more convenient, but as long as Phil didn't return, Dan didn't know if he really should get some or not. He didn't plan getting used to that little rascal, even if he had to admit that he started to feet a tiny little bit affectionate to it… maybe. When the cat was done, it came flouncing out of the bathroom, passing Dan with sending him an unreadable look, before – again – it started meowing. Dan sighed.

"What is it now, Rascal?" he asked. "Are you hungry again? You know, you don't need to tell me, dinner is already waiting upstairs in the kitchen for you!"

The next meow sounded much more appreciative – at least, Dan tried to convince himself about it – and then, the cat started running to jump up the stairs. Dan followed. However, in the kitchen, the cat seemed not very pleased about the prepared food – at least, it was sniffing and backing off from the small plate filled with cat food, and even threw Dan another look, which the young man interpreted as a not very amused one. He wondered, if cats could even really _make_ disapproving faces or any faces at all besides their standard setting cute face, however, it really felt like disagreement when Rascal looked at him.

"What? There you have your food," Dan said, pointing at the plate again, but Rascal just sniffed once more, backed off again, and started crying out loud in protest. Dan cringed a little, suddenly remembering his meeting with Mrs. Walsh from before and instinctively put his finger on his lips. "Shhht, will you keep it low, please? So… what's wrong with the food? The package even says it's natural and balanced, and whatnot… I suppose, it's really good cat food!" 

More extremely loud and unpleasant meowing followed.

"OK, fine, you want something else?" Dan asked quickly, turning to the fridge, ready to search for something, his eyes still focused on the blue eyes of the little cat.

"Meow!" That sounded approving in Dan's ears.

"Hm… let's see…," the young man's head disappeared in the huge fridge.

It was pretty empty though. The chicken was already gone, of course, but what else could he offer the cat? There was cheese, but Dan once read on the internet (thank you, sleepless nights on Wikipedia) that actually, dairy products were not the best for cats, so that wasn't a choice. Maybe…

Oh yes, there was still a package of ham left. He opened the package and pulled out a few slices of ham, making a small taste test before offering it to the cat, which now sat there with its eyes growing bigger and bigger. Dan took another plate and arranged the ham on it, tearing the slices in smaller pieces to prevent the animal from wolfing down the meat in too big bites. Once Rascal seemed happy with the world, Dan leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"What a picky eater you are, holy crap," he murmured before he chuckled. "And you know? That's Phil's favourite ham…," he noted.

The grin on his face suddenly died at the repeated thought of Phil, though. It was getting later and later, and still there was no sign of life from his boyfriend. Yes, if he wasn't already, at least now Dan would start worrying.

\- - -

Just a few hours later - it was still way before midnight - Dan was already lying in bed, which was very unusual for the young man at this time. He planned to sleep in Phil's and his bed again, this night, after he had taken a break the previous night, but without his boyfriend, it felt strange.

Dan had folded the pyjama he had found today underneath Phil's side of the blanket, and put it on top of the man's pillow. He tried to ignore that stupid thought in his head, if Phil might have thought of bringing a pyjama with him tonight, wherever he could be, and turned to the other side of the bed, facing away from Phil's place, to try and numb the upwelling pain of loneliness.

Of course, Dan couldn't sleep. He was wide awake, his worry about Phil dominating every thought his messy brain could grasp, however, it was exactly this mess in his head that also kept him from being productive. There would have been a gaming video for his and Phil's joint gaming channel that he should have edited, but just the simple though of _"Will there even be a joint channel in the future if Phil left me?"_ made it impossible for Dan to proceed with his work.

Depression was creeping up his chest, slowly but surely, and Dan was literally ready to cry himself to sleep, when he suddenly felt a small weight on his legs. He turned his head to the spot, and with his eyes adjusted to the dark a little already, he could make out the silhouette of the cat, that was now walking over his hip and came down to sit in front of him. Instinctively, Dan reached out to pat the small animal, that had just shown up at the right time, as if wanting to tell him that he wasn't alone.

Dan sighed, his fingers running through the soft cat fur, when he was surprised by a small wet touch – the cat had touched his face with its tiny little nose. This little gesture – a "cat kiss", as Dan had learned from the internet someday - broke down the last of defence that was keeping the young man from crying, and so he couldn't help but hug the little fur ball, press it against him, and bawl his eyes out for a good couple of minutes.

About half an hour – and two more cat kisses later – Rascal had fallen asleep in Dan's arms, the purring ebbing away slowly, until there was only heavy breathing left. Dan reached for his cell phone and started browsing the web for new flats. It costs nothing to look. He was even not too unsuccessful (and surprised that indeed, a lot of houses allowed pets, contrary to their current one), but when he once more thought about Phil maybe never coming back, Dan's excitement was gone immediately. Dan cursed this emotional, negative thinking side of himself, but he couldn't do anything against his fears and the feeling of his next existential crisis approaching...

About an hour later, just before Dan finally managed to fall asleep, his arms were still carefully embracing the cat which, when waking up occasionally, reached out to Dan with its little paws and nose, like it wanted to comfort him. Dan's heart felt warmer and cosier again and he was convinced, that this cat was the most adorable creature in this entire world. He didn't losen his embrace, not even when he finally drifted off into sleep.

\- - -

There was another nightmare, which eventually caused Dan to wake up, shaking and sweating, but it was almost gone once the young man snapped his eyes open. When he reached besides him in the dark to the other side of the bed in an approach to seek safety, he only touched air, though.

"Phil...?" Dan murmured before he realised that his foggy brain had just played a trick on him and had made him able to forget for a short moment that Phil wasn't there.

Despite it being super early (a short glance at his cell phone told Dan that it was about seven in the morning, which was usually not a time for him or Phil to wake up), the young man fought with his lazy limbs to get out of bed. He had to double check. Phil could have returned overnight, he could be in the bathroom or in the kitchen, or he could be sleeping on the couch in the living room, or even in Dan's room if he was still mad at him. At least, he could be _home_ , right?

It turned out to be useless, though. Phil wasn't there. Instead, Dan found Rascal – who he just remembered not having seen cuddling up in his arms like he did when Dan fell asleep last night – in the kitchen.

The cat was crouching in front of the small plate that was still loaded with yesterday's cat food that Dan apparently had forgotten to get rid of. He stopped, looking at the cat, witnessing how it _tried_ to eat some of the food, before spitting it out right away, backing off and shaking its little head in disgust. Dan reached down at the little animal, which greeted him with a surprised meow, and took it on his arm, tickling the spot underneath its chin.

"Good morning, little rascal. You really don't like that food, do you?" Dan sighed, stepping closer to the fridge.

When he wanted to put the cat down again, the animal struggled, freed itself from Dan's grip and jumped onto the kitchen counter, heading straight forward to... Dan's cereal box.

Gaping, the young man could just look at the cat, who sniffed at the carton box and started pushing it with its paws, towards the edge of the kitchen surface, and actually managed to throw it down just a second later. Dan couldn't believe what he just witnessed, was he imagining things or was the cat _again_ targeting _his_ cereals, just like yesterday? _On purpose_?! That was such a strange thing to do for a cat, the young man just couldn't comprehend the meaning behind this action. Was it coincidence? Did Rascal just search for something else to eat? But why should he go for _cereal_ then? Cats didn't even eat cereal...

 _"...Unless they weren't real cats,"_ Dan's mind interrupted, nonchalantly stating the sentence in his mind as if it was the most logical conclusion ever.

Dan shook his head, but the thought, combined with the view of the cat now trying to open the cereal carton with its claws and teeth, made Dan's mind flash and then, there was the memory of his nightmare from just before. He had dreamed of that strange fur-monster, that Phil had become in his former dream (as if it wasn't strange enough that Dan actually experienced a continuation of one of his stupid dreams). After some scary scenes that Dan had tried to push away as soon as they surfaced; there also happened a scene in which the monster savaged a whole isle of cereals in a supermarket. Of course, all the shelves were being filled with Dan's favourite cereals and the strangest thing was, that as soon as the monster had finished eating all of it, it had started to transform back into its former human shape - Phil.

For a second, Dan didn't move. The images from his strange dream overlapping with Rascal trying to get the fillings of Dan's cereal carton, and connecting the two images was ridiculous, but there was this tiny little voice in Dan's head that didn't leave him alone. What if... what if actually...

Dan chuckled, breaking out of his train of thoughts. "Don't be ridiculous, we're not in a dream here," he murmured to himself, not speaking out loud the rest of his sentence. _"This cat will NOT turn into Phil if you feed it with cereal, so get a hold of yourself and put the box back before the cat gets poisoned. – And what if we're still dreaming? We could try it – Bullshit, that's dangerous!"_

After a few more seconds of internal discussion, Dan bent down and picked up the carton to put it into the kitchen cupboard to keep it safe. He tried to ignore Rascal's meowing protest and instead provided the little animal with some more ham that was still left from yesterday, before he disposed the uneaten cat food.

Dan himself didn't feel like having breakfast, and he especially didn't feel like eating his cereals after that dream. Instead, he found himself messaging all of his friends once more while sitting on the couch in the living room with a blanket wrapped around him and pulled over his head, finally ready to freak out, when _still_ no one seemed to have any idea of where Phil might have been gone to.

He ended up calling one of his best friends, Louise, to cry all his sorrows into her ear over the phone, but even this didn't seem to help, nor did Rascal, who had joined Dan to keep him company and seemed very exciting about something Dan didn't understand. At first. He then saw that the cat had brought _two mismatching socks_ from Phil's bedroom to Dan and didn't stop meowing, as if it wanted to _tell_ Dan something, but the young man really had no idea what this was about.

The only thing he could come up with was – again – that freakish thought in his head that started spelling itself over and over.

"What if Phil turned into a cat?!" Dan asked into the phone, the realisation of what it could actually mean if the words he just dared speaking out loud, were actually true, causing him to freeze.

There was a moment of silence before Louise managed to voice a disbelieving _"What?!"_ , commenting her friend's theory, but Dan continued, explaining himself.

The worst thing – and this didn't help Dan at all to keep from turning mad - was, that the signs for this stupid possibility were actually _there_!

Rascal had turned up as soon as Phil had disappeared. The little guy's fur was as black as Phil's dyed emo hair, his blue eyes the exact same shade as Phil's. It had tried to use a human toilet, it didn't like cat food, but it loved Phil's favourite ham and attempted - not only once - to _steal Dan's breakfast cereals_ and now it even brought Phil's socks along! This would be hilarious, and sounded more like the material for a YouTube skit than a real possibility, if Dan wasn't actually worried about losing his mind at the moment.

"It's like the cat is telling me _Hey, it's me, Phil_ , god dammit!" Dan hissed into the phone pressed to his ear so forcefully that he felt it turning hot against the device.

 _"Dan, that's crazy and you know that, calm down and try to think logically,"_ Louise tried to help him from the other end of the line.

"This _is_ logical, didn't you listen to me about what that _cat did_?!"

 _"But it's just impossible!"_ Louise said. _"You're imagining things. Oh Dan, you're missing Phil, you think he left you and that's why your mind is playing tricks on you now,"_ the woman continued sympathetically, trying to talk some common sense back into Dan's mind.

The young man just stared into the nothing in front of him, trying to ignore the meowing of the cat that just didn't stop and made him feel even more stressed and anxious about the whole situation. For a moment he tried figuring out which would be actually worse – having Phil around him but in form of a cat, unable to continue their relationship the way it was; or being left behind by the person he loved and not having Phil around him at all. He shook his head. This was just stupid. But what if Louise was right? 

"Gosh, Louise, what am I supposed to do if he really left me?" Dan asked in a weak voice. It would be the worse option, definitely, but also the more credible one, he had to admit that. "I mean, what else could it be? Of course, he did not turn a _cat_ , I don't even know what I'm thinking.... I was mean to him and I am a fucking piece of shit, I don't deserve such a kind and gentle soul as Phil, that's why he left me -," the young man lamented, just to be interrupted by his friend.

 _"Stop, Dan, stop! You are not a piece of shit! Phil loves you, you hear me? I know it! I swear! He would never do that to you, you hear me? NEVER!"_ his friend tried to reassure him. _"It's rather likely he went out for taking care of some things for the cat and..."_

"That's what I thought too yesterday, but that was _yesterday_ , shouldn't he long be returned home?"

Louise took a bit longer to reply this time, and Dan already interpreted it as a bad sign. After all, he must be right, Phil had left and would never come back, he better accepted the thought rather sooner than later.

 _"Maybe... he got lost?"_ Louise suggested and Dan couldn't even be mad at her, as this actually sounded like a credible possibility.

"Thank you, that is very helpful," the man sighed into the speakers of his phone.

Still, he couldn't brush off that comment just like that. Indeed, something could have happened to Phil on his way. Dan had completely forgotten about this possibility, but _that_ was the worst option of them all – that Phil had just went out and something bad happened to him. The horror image of Phil being kidnapped, injured, or even worse – dead, crept into Dan's mind and he started shaking at the thought of his boyfriend being in danger. Panic sloshed over him.

 _"Dan? Dan, are you still there?"_ Louise eventually pulled him out of his horrifying thoughts, back to reality.

"I-I'd better call the police and tell them he's missing...," Dan murmured nervously.

 _"Dan, don't overreact,"_ Louise tried to rescue the situation, but apparently, Dan was already out of it. 

" _Overreact_?! Louise, he's gone for a whole day already, he _never_ just disappears for a whole day without telling anybody!" Dan freaked out.

_"Still, he's probably back by lunch time. Just wait a little longer, and if he doesn't show up by then, you can still call the police, OK? Now do something to distract yourself... isn't there anything you need to do?"_

"I need to go buy proper cat litter for...," Dan looked at Rascal (– or Phil? No, Rascal it was -) and he swallowed. "For the cat..."

 _"OK, good, that's good!"_ his friend replied, her voice sounding motivated. _"So get yourself together, Darling, go out and buy the litter and when you're back, maybe Phil will be back too, OK? …Dan?"_

Silence.

 _"Shall I come over to your place?"_ Louise offered.

"No… no, it's fine, thanks. I – I can do this," Dan replied after considering the option for a second. "I'll call you if there's any news. Thanks, Louise."

After his friend told him a few more words to cheer up and promised to ask around too to see if any of their friends might have any idea where Phil might have gone to, Dan ended the phone call and tried to think as positive as Louise, even if he knew it wasn't his forte. However, just after pondering about it for a few minutes, the young man reached out for his phone again, this time to set a call to the police, just to make sure...

As expected, they were not very helpful, as they even told Dan to wait for another few hours for his friend's possible return and come to the police station if he didn't show up again until the evening to file a proper missing person's report. This heard, there was nothing much Dan could do right now, other than smashing his phone onto the couch in utter frustration, and so he decided to follow Louise's advice and focus on something that needed to be done now, and that he actually could do.

Dan reached his hand towards the cat that was still on the couch next to him, cuddling close, but had fallen silent a few minutes ago. The man's blanket slipped from his shoulders when he freed his elbow. He took a deep breath and finally touched the cat again, the soft black fur brushing through his spread fingers.

"I wished you could speak my language," Dan said in a low voice, the cat lifting its tiny head a little to meet his eyes. "Or that I could speak yours… it would make things a lot easier."

Rascal meowed, seemingly a bit more enthusiastic again than before, and Dan chuckled.

"I'm going out for a while to buy something for you," the young man told the cat who rubbed its face against Dan's knee. _"It's fine, I'm not turning crazy, Phil did not turn into a cat, and when I'm back, Phil will be back too and we'll talk about what to do with Rascal...,"_ he told himself while taking a few deep breaths.

There was a – sad? – meow from the animal, when Dan finally got up. He tried to ignore it, but petted the animal one last time and then turned to go get his wallet and leave.

"I'll be right back!"

\- - -

This time, Dan actually thought about bringing a proper non-see-through shopping bag, but the problem was, that the package of cat litter he bought at the store around the corner was much heavier and larger than he expected and his bag would have definitely exploded if he had just tried to fit the package into it. Thus, Dan had to carry the big and heavy paper bag just like it was – uncovered and unprotected from anyone's looks – to bring it home safely.

While walking down the street, back to his flat, at least twice as slow as usual due to the ridiculously heavy extra weight, Dan wondered if this would become his new weekly work out. That was, if he and Phil would eventually keep the cat. But, let's face it, who could be so cruel to throw this poor cute little thing out?!

Dan didn't like to admit it – especially he wouldn't like to admit it in front of Phil – but despite it was just a short amount of time that he spent with a cat, he already kind of got used to the little animal and in fact, it wasn't _so_ bad to have one around. Yes, there were still all the reasons that spoke against keeping a pet, but Dan somehow started wanting to believe that there could be solutions for those problems, just like Phil said.

He sighed. If he just had realised this sooner, it might have prevented a lot of trouble. He and Phil wouldn't have fought, Phil wouldn't have…

The more Dan kept thinking about the whole matter, the more the spiral in his head started pulling him down to dark places again, and soon, his thoughts – despite the conversation with Louise – were circling around that one little stupid idea that had clawed itself into his brain – that the _cat_ was actually _Phil_... even if it was a completely impossible thing. This wasn't some movie or fantasy book, after all, but still… At least, Dan would prefer _this_ possibility to the other options left – Phil either having left him, or lying in some dark side street of London.

Dan shook his head when he found himself stopping to walk over spacing out at this horrifying thought and standing there like stupid in the middle of the pavement. He had to go on. He didn't know what happened. There was no need to talk Phil dead or to try dealing with all the guilt that threatened to overwhelm him as he started to analyse what he did wrong to trigger this catastrophic situation. Everything would be fine, just like Louise said. Dan had to believe it.

Talking about believing – just a few minutes later, Dan could _not_ believe to actually be so damned unlucky to _again_ meet exactly that one person, who was _not_ to see that he was buying supplies for a pet – Mrs. Walsh.

Apparently, the woman was about to go out, and she was just about to lock the door, when Dan came walking around the corner, ready to step up the few stairs to the entrance. He froze in the movement of his first step, feeling how the last bit of colour disappeared from his face as he recognised the landlady. The shock left him standing there like a lamppost. Maybe, if he just stood there and pretended to be invisible…

"Mr. Howell!"

Of course, she saw him. Dan pressed his suddenly completely dry lips together and pulled the air sharply in through his nose.

"Mrs. Walsh, what a beautiful day, isn't it?" he stupidly said, ignoring that the sky was cloudy and grey, and forcing himself to smile. Maybe, she wouldn't see what he was carrying around?

But of course, she did.

"How seldom to see you two days in a row, Mr. Howell," she started, scanning the young man from top to toes, her eyes getting stuck with the huge bag of cat litter in Dan's hand. She cleared her throat. "May I ask, is this another _present for your friend_?" she then continued, arching a critical eyebrow at her renter.

"Uhm… yes, yes, of course," Dan said, nodding heavily, but he doubted he was in any way convincing. He was such a bad liar, Mrs. Walsh would look through him right away.

Her critical look spoke volumes, and Dan immediately knew that he had lost, when the woman took a step closer to him and crossed her arms in front of her slender body.

"I fear I need to insist on my right to look inside your flat, Mr. Howell," she began, and internally, Dan screamed. "I hope you understand, but I need to know that everything is in good order."

"But… uhm… I'm sorry, today is a bit… Phil is… and I planned to clean and…, you see?" Dan stuttered, trying to avoid the threatening inspection, but, of course, Mrs. Walsh knew exactly how to deal with the situation.

"Mr. Howell, I know quite well that two young men might not have a perfectly clean apartment every day, so no need to worry, I don't mind as long as you don't have a reeking pile of rubbish in there. Or animals...," she added, glancing at Dan.

The young man swallowed, attempting another smile when the woman further pierced him with her stare.

"It's been a while since my last visit, and I have a bit time on hand right now, so I'm sure you don't mind, do you?" she asked, challenging.

Dan pursed his lips.

"There's nothing you have to hide, after all, right?"

"No… of course, not," the young man finally replied, the crooked smile on his face unstable.

He went up the rest of the few stairs to the flat door, put down the cat litter and reached for the door nob, keys in one hand, and when he was ready to open the door, he turned around to face Mrs. Walsh, who had followed him on the heels. He flashed her another attempt of an innocent smile.

"Just give me five seconds to clean up the mess in the kitchen and I'll let you in, deal?" he tried as his last resort.

The woman hinted a roll of the eyes while pressing her lips into a thin line, and sighed before she continued speaking. "I _really_ don't mind your kitchen, Mr. Howell. Just let me in already!"

Dan squinted his eyes when he turned back to face the door and took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said, turning the keys and slowly starting to push the door open, sending a prayer to the skies, that the cat would be well hidden somewhere and…

Crap, still, there was proof around that a cat had been in the flat, Dan realised panicky, the improvised cat toilet in the bathroom for instance. OK, maybe he could sell it of as some strange experiment for YouTube, same for the plates standing around on the kitchen floor on which he served food to the animal, but what if she spotted all the cat fur floating around literally _everywhere_?

Dan decided, that he would manage _somehow_ to talk himself out of the situation, after all, he was creative, he had a blooming fantasy… Yes, he was convinced, there wouldn't be a problem. He could still use the excuse of "having those things around because of his friend". 

Yes, it would be fine, he thought. 

That was until he pushed open the door and Rascal was sitting there at the end of the stairs, as if he had been waiting for Dan's return.

 _"Oh, crap…,"_ Dan thought, squinting his eyes for a second, before he quickly turned around while trying to block the view through the door for Mrs. Walsh, but it was already too late.

"Mr. Howell!" Mrs. Walsh exclaimed, indignantly. "Don't tell me there is actually a _cat_ in this flat!"

"There… is not? It's just..." Dan tried, but actually, he knew that he could try telling the woman whatever he wanted, that the thing she saw was a plush toy or a fata morgana, she wouldn't believe him anyway.

As expected, Mrs. Walsh flashed an angry glare at the young man, before she reached out, pushing him aside and stepped into the flat until she was facing the little animal by herself, which was still sitting on the stairs, even if it looked slightly panicky now, as if it knew that it was in trouble.

"Oh please, don't make a fool of me, Mr. Howell!" the landlady said, turning her head and sending a death glare at him. "This obviously _is_ a cat! And you know what the consequences are, don't you?!"

Dan panicked. He pushed himself into the flat between the door and the angry Mrs. Walsh, and instinctively stood between her and the cat.

"Please, Mrs. Walsh, it's not like it looks, I swear!" Dan started, even if he wasn't sure how he should sell this whole situation to the woman.

"Oh, I think it is exactly as it looks, young man," the old woman snapped. "You are not allowed to keep pets in this flat and nevertheless, there is a cat sitting on your stairs! In addition, you lied to me about this whole situation, not only once!"

Dan realised it would be stupid to keep on pretending that he did nothing wrong (even if actually, this wasn't _his_ fault) so he gave in.

"OK but this… it's just temporary, you know? We –"

"I don't mind if this is your cat or if you are just catsitting or anything, a rule is a rule and you broke it!" Mrs. Walsh's strict voice cut in, sharp to Dan's ears. "You have two choices now, Mr. Howell, either, you and Mr. Lester take this thing with you and leave the flat, _immediately_ , or you hand over the cat me now and I will forget everything, but this will be the one and only time I will let something like this pass!"

"But, Mrs. Walsh!"

Dan was close to freak out as the panic of losing either his home or his new companion overwhelmed him. Of course, both offers, no matter how _generous_ Mrs. Walsh thought they might sound, were _not_ an option! What was she planning to do with Rascal once she got her hands on him? 

Hurriedly, Dan turned to reach for the cat on the stairs which started meowing panicking immediately, but when he held the small animal protectively in his shaking arms, it seemed to realise that there was no way Dan would allow anything or anyone to harm it. 

Nervously, the young man took a deep breath before he continued speaking to his land lady.

"You can't… I mean, look at this little guy, you can't put him out on the streets all alone, he will die!" he exclaimed, knowing he was exaggerating, but apparently, Mrs. Walsh did not have such a big heart for cats as he did.

"Then, Mr. Howell, you know where the door is, and are free to go!" the woman replied, her face puffed red and her eyes steering in anger at the young man. "Those are the rules!"

"According to the law, you have to grant us at least a short period of time for moving out, you can't push us out just like that!" Dan spoke up in defence.

There might not be much that had clung to his brain from the time he had studied law, but he remembered that he read the rental law quite contently, just in case he would need it one day, which, apparently, paid off just right now.

The woman's head turned even redder, but she knew Dan was right and so she just pressed together her lips and took a deep breath.

"You have until the end of the month, and then you're gone!" she spat at Dan.

"Fine!" he yelled at her, pressing the small animal even closer, to make sure to protect it. He could live with that deadline. "But the cat stays until then!"

"You're better gone sooner than later, in this case," Mrs. Walsh hissed between clenched teeth, before she reached for the doorknob, ready to leave. She spat a last "Good day, Mr. Howell," and then, after smashing the door close, she was gone.

Just that very moment, Dan's weak knees that he had managed to ignore for the last few minutes, gave in and he sank to the floor. He felt a whole load of pressure falling from his chest, the relief even causing him to start crying. He held the little cat closer, as if he wanted to never ever let go off it again and even when he felt the little animal moving in his arms, trying to break free, he kept it locked in his embrace, sobbing. The cat stopped moving, eventually, when Dan's tears didn't stop flooding, and instead it started brushing its tiny nose against Dan's face, who ended up crying even more upon this cute little gesture. Damned, he just realised what a wreck he was.

"I swear," he sobbed as he finally found back his words, "If anyone takes you away from me too, I'm going to die! I don't know what to do… I still don't know if you are Phil, or if he's gone for good… but if he doesn't come back, than at least I want the universe let me keep this cat," the young man sniffled.

Not, that a pet could ever replace his beloved boyfriend, of course not, but this was just too much to handle for Dan right now. A wave of tears welled up and he couldn't hold it back. He closed his eyes, big hot tears rolling down his face, and his whole body was shaking and feeling so weak that he was sure he'd collapse if he wasn't already sitting on the floor.

"Oh Phil, I miss you so much...," Dan whispered under tears. "I just want you to come back. I will let you adopt a whole bunch of cats, if you want, I don't care anymore, I just want you to come back, Phil... Please…"

The cat started moving again. No, not moving, this time it was different, Dan thought, frowning irritatedly. It was stranger, the cat was… growing?!

Dan backed off in shock, pressing his back against the stairs behind him. He loosened his grip in the process and then, there was nothing left for him than to watch the disturbing shifting of shapes the cat went through in front of his eyes, with his mouth fallen open.

It was as if Dan had worked a spell. Or he was simply dreaming. The animal's limbs were growing longer, the back lifting higher and the black fur was disappearing from the pale skin underneath, until there was only a bunch of black hair in the shape of a 2007 emo haircut left.

Dan still goggled at the body in front of him, and he wasn't sure if he was rather shocked by witnessing what he just had, or by the fact, that he had _actually_ been _right_ with his suspicion about _Phil having turned into a cat_ , as crazy as it sounded.

The young man was at a loss of words first, trying his best not to freak out. So it _was_ Phil – completely shifted back into his human form, and by the way, completely naked – who now held up his hand for a greeting and flashed his boyfriend a crooked smile.

"Hey, Dan…"

Finally hearing Phil's voice again, Dan didn't care if he had just witnessed the most crazy thing in his entire life, or if his lover was sitting there in front of him, naked. He just felt his body moving by itself as he leaped forward, releasing another loud sob, and threw his arms around his boyfriend's neck, clinging to him.

"Oh Phil, oh Gosh, Phil, it was really you!" he cried, burying his face in the crook of Phil's neck, letting his hands run through his black hair, down to his back, and hugging him close. "That's… insane!"

"I know!" Phil started, his own arms wrapped tightly around Dan. "This is crazy, I - Achou!" he was suddenly interrupted by his own sneezing. "Aaaaachooouuuu!"

"Bless you!" Dan said, pulling back a little, his hands clamping at Phil's shoulders, as he looked at him. His boyfriend's eyes looked as red and swollen as Dan's felt from crying.

"Oh my god," Phil sniffled. "Your sweater is full of cat fur…"

His boyfriend snorted, rolling his eyes. "No shit, Sherlock!"

Another sneeze followed, shaking Phil's complete body and startling even Dan, who loosened his grip around his boyfriend. "I think when I was a cat, the allergy wasn't that bad but now, it's coming back full force, damned…"

Dan didn't reply (for once he didn't feel the urge to press that he had been right about this aspect of arguments speaking _against_ a cat, to begin with), and so, the two men just looked into each other's eyes for a moment, without saying anything.

After a short while, Phil's mouth twitched into a cute smile, and Dan threw his arms around Phil, once more. His eyes filled with more tears (damned, why was he so sappy?!) and his lips started trembling. It was hard for him to hold back the tears of relief now and in the end, he lost the fight again, breaking out into tears, and holding even tighter onto his boyfriend.

"Dan… Dan?" Phil asked, worry in his voice. "You OK?"

"You're back…," Dan sobbed. "Hell, fuck, you're back! Am I dreaming?!"

Phil chuckled cutely. "No, but you're suffocating me, Dan -"

"I can't believe that cat has really been you -," the younger man whispered, shaking his head slightly.

"Dan!" Phil interrupted the cuddling session and his boyfriend pulled back again.

"What?!"

"I appreciate your relief about my _return_ but...," Phil said, smiling at the other man. He lifted his hand and brushed it slightly over Dan's cheek, who leaned slightly against it, not taking his eyes off of Phil's. "I'm naked and it's cold. I want to get dressed and then we can continue, OK?"

"Oh...," Dan blushed, sniffling. "Sure, naked… uhm… I'm sorry."

"Are you still crying?" Phil asked though, instead of getting up to fetch something to dress. He threw his boyfriend a worried look as he caught another large tear rolling down his cheek with his thumb. "Why?"

"Why? Why I am _crying_?!" Dan repeated, in disbelief. "Phil… Do you have _any_ idea what was going on here?!"

His boyfriend arched an eyebrow. "Of course, I do… I was here too, you forgot?"

"I thought you left me or you got kidnapped by some crazy people, or killed or –"

"I would _never_ leave you, Dan, you hear me?" Phil interrupted his boyfriend, looking at him straight and for a moment, Dan shut up.

"This is still…," Dan slightly shook his head, the abnormality of the situation coming back. "How _could_ you even, I mean… getting yourself transformed into a cat… how did you even _do_ that?" he asked frowning.

"I'm a magician," Phil said, looking as if he meant it.

Dan narrowed his eyes, tilting his head, and Phil looked away, caught. "Don't joke with me…"

"Sorry," the older man replied, chuckling softly before he turned serious again. "Honestly… I don't know. I _think_ though, that it was that fortune cookie that old Chinese lady gave me…"

"You know how ridiculous that sounds, don't you?" Dan wanted to confirm.

"Yes!" Phil agreed, chuckling. "Just as ridiculous as a human turning into a cat! Do you have any better explanation?"

"Not really…," Dan had to admit. "But this is crazy. I thought I was going nuts. Or maybe… I am dreaming? Or… am I dead?!" He blanked. This thought hadn't occurred in his paranoid mind yet, but, it was a possibility, wasn't it?

"Dan!" Phil yelled to pull his boyfriend back from wherever he had spaced out to. He cupped Dan's face and made him look at him. "Stop making me worry about you!"

" _You_ worry about _me_?!" Dan snorted in disbelief, shifting as he started to gesture with his whole body, so that Phil's hands dropped down. "What should _I_ say then? My boyfriend was missing for two days, I was _terrified_!"

"I'm so sorry, really! I wanted to tell you what's happening but...," the other man started. "Do you know how hard it is to express yourself when you're a cat?!"

"I can imagine," Dan replied. He sighed before he pouted cutely, looking at his boyfriend. "Still, I was really very close to losing it… and that's all your fault!"

"I know, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Phil repeated.

"No, don't be, it's my fault, too," Dan said, averting his look and brushing a hand over his blushed face. He wasn't the best in apologizing, he knew that, especially when he had seriously messed up. However, he had to. "I shouldn't have been such a jerk because of that whole pet topic," he looked back into his partner's eyes. "Phil, I am genuinely sorry for being an asshole."

Again, Phil lifted one of his hands to brush it caringly over his lover's cheeks. This time, Dan put his own hand on top of it, pressing Phil's slightly and enjoying the warm touch of their hands. How much he had missed this, even if it had only been for two days...

"But you're right," Phil said with a smile. "I behaved like an idiot too, and you're right," he repeated. "We're not allowed to keep animals here and if Mrs. Walsh would take away our pet like she threatened to do before… it would have been horri-ACHOU!"

"Bless you," Dan said again, before he started pulling off his sweater. He handed it to Phil, who had started shaking slightly from the cool air in the corridor. "Now didn't you want to get dressed? Take this, I don't want you to get sick."

Phil thanked his boyfriend with a wide smile and did as he was told. The sweater alone won't keep him warm for the rest of the day, but was sufficient for the next step. He stood up, reaching his hand out to Dan, who grabbed it and let himself be pulled up – into another embrace. Phil giggled when Dan reached his arms around him and pressed him close in return, even if his primary goal seemed to be to pull the seam of the sweater as low as possible to cover Phil's cold, naked butt. 

Using the situation to his advantage, Phil leaned a bit forward, letting his arms slip around Dan's neck. He brushed his lips against Dan's cheek in a small loving kiss, causing his boyfriend to blush. He smirked. Even if they were a couple for years, even if kissing had become the norm between them, it still made Dan a little nervous and let him blush, and Phil loved that. He really had a very cute boyfriend, he thought proudly.

Phil kissed Dan's cheek again, over and over, until Dan finally turned his head a little, to capture his boyfriend's lips with his. Phil closed his eyes and let himself drown in the passionate but soft kiss that followed. It was as if Dan wanted to put all of his feelings from the past few days mixed with the relief to have his lover back, into that one kiss. It was loving, and caring, and hungry, and it felt so good, that Phil wouldn't have wanted it to end, if he wasn't actually really starting to freeze.

Slowly, Phil pulled back a little and after he pecked Dan's lips for a last time, he threw him a smirk. 

"What about taking a bath together? I need to warm up," the man suggested.

Dan, still seeming a little drunk from their kiss, looked at his boyfriend and then just shrugged. "OK, why not."  
   
Laughing, Phil took Dan's hand to drag him to the bathroom and just a few minutes later, they had both lost all of their clothes and were already stepping into the bathtub, the water still running and the purple bath salt that Phil had added, colouring the liquid.

They sat in, facing each other, which was a little bit difficult since they were both quite tall, however, from time to time they enjoyed taking a bath together and after what happened, this definitely called for such an occasion. Shortly after, Dan insisted on Phil turning around so that he was sitting between his legs and Dan could reach his boyfriend's hair better, to wash it. Phil didn't complain, Dan knew the man loved it when Dan offered this kind of service, even found it a cute gesture of his boyfriend. Plus, Phil loved head massages anyway. Like this, they were enjoying each other's company silently, not finding it fit to talk about what happened, until Dan broke the silence again.

"Let's move out," the man suggested, sounding nonchalant.

"What?" Phil turned his head, a bit too fast, so that some of the shampoo on Dan's fingers ended up in his eye. He cursed silently and quickly wiped it away, before he looked at his boyfriend again, puzzled. "Why?"

"We can't keep a cat here," Dan stated the obvious.

"We... don't have a cat," Phil replied, slowly.

"But Mrs. Walsh _thinks_ we have one, and after what happened between her and me, I honestly don't really want to stay here any longer," Dan babbled on, the memory of his confrontation with the older woman making him feel angry and anxious at the same time. "Furthermore… we _could_ have one. A cat. I mean… if you are still up to the idea, and we can bribe one of our friends to take care of it while we're travelling. And, obviously, you might have to get some pills against your allergy or something like that," he added.

As expected, Phil's face brightened up and he broke into a wide smile. "Oh my Gosh, Dan, really?"

"I said that I would allow you to have cats, didn't I?" the other man replied, acting as if all of this was nothing special. "I intend to keep my word, I didn't say that just out of desperation. Although…," he frowned, as an idea hit him. "Maybe, if I didn't say it, you wouldn't have changed back… that's probably how it's supposed to work! Remember _Freaky Friday_? As soon as the main characters learned their lessons, they turned back to –"

"Are you sure?" Phil asked.

"Well, of course I have no idea how _magic fortune cookies_ work – if it really was that damned thing that turned you into a cat – it's just a guess," Dan answered, falling into thinking mode immediately.

"I mean, are you sure about us getting a cat?" Phil chuckled. 

The young man obviously didn't seem to care about what had triggered his transformation at the moment, he was just happy and excited to be back to normal and to actually have Dan saying that they could get a cat. Sometimes, Dan wished he could be as simple as Phil was at times. 

"Well, if you promise to take care of it properly and if you can get your allergy under control, then -," Dan stopped when he saw the victorious smile on Phil's face.

"You actually enjoyed having a cat, didn't you?" the older man started teasing, poking his boyfriend in the side.

The water splashed when Dan tried to move away from his lover's teasing touch, and some of it spilled over the edge of the bathtub, but neither of them cared.

"What? No," Dan started as he tried to protect his side and rolled his eyes, even if it was probably useless to lie. "That was because it was _you_ ," he tried nonetheless.

Phil turned to face forward again and leaned back in his boyfriend's embrace.

"It's sweet of you to say that but I got you," he started playing with Dan's hands, who had circled his arms around Phil's belly, welcoming the cuddle. "You didn't _know_ it was me. But I was there, you know? I could feel you liked having a cat around."

Dan couldn't see Phil's evil grin, but he knew it was there. He sighed, theatrically, but couldn't help to smirk by himself, anyway.

"Well, I at least wasn't an asshole who didn't care. It's a small living being after all. Who wouldn't have loved it?!"

"Right? Cats are just adorable! Anyway, yes, let's search for a place where pets are allowed!" Phil replied, excited, finally giving Dan the reaction he had expected from his lover.

"Good. You know, I already looked up a few possibilities," Dan dropped, trying to hide the pride in his voice.

"Really!? When did you do that?"

"While you've been asleep, sleepy paws," his boyfriend replied, pouting slightly and clenching Phil's hands which were still playing with his fingers.

"Uhm, well… the life as a cat is very tiring, you know?"

The younger man faked a deep sigh. "I wished _I_ was a cat and could sleep and laze around the whole day, too…"

Phil panicked. "Dan! Be careful what you wish for!"

His lover just shrugged carelessly. "I threw away my fortune cookie, you forgot? So, I'm safe."

That was probably true, Phil considered, tilting his head, before he said, "I can't believe that fortune cookie really granted my wish!"

" _I_ granted your wish," Dan corrected, but Phil insisted on being grateful to a piece of much to hard pastry.

"Because of what that fortune cookie did to me."

"Fuck that fortune cookie!" the younger man exclaimed.

"I'd rather fuck you," Phil replied in a deep voice, as he turned his head, wiggling his eyebrows at Dan and trying to look seductive.

"Oh, shut up, you!" Dan replied, laughing.

He hugged his boyfriend tighter, hiding his blushed face in the crook of his neck. It wasn't like Phil needed to try to seduce him, after all, but it was always fun to see him try.

"Somehow I feel like watching _Freaky Friday_ again now and get some Chinese food… what do you think?" Phil then switched the topic, turning back to meet Dan's gaze once more.

Dan just rolled his eyes and leaned forward to meet Phil's lips with his, and they shared a long soft kiss that neither one of them wanted to break, until Dan parted their lips again in order to catch his breath.

"I love you, but no," he said. "No Chinese food for at least 4 weeks!"

"I can live with that. And I guess we need to find a new favourite Chinese restaurant anyway, if we move places," Phil said, grinning at his boyfriend.

Dan rolled his eyes playfully but didn't ignore the thought that maybe, he should consider suggesting another restaurant for their next take-out order instead. Just to be on the safe side.

Phil smiled at him, irresistibly, before he leaned in for another kiss.

"I love you too," he said when they parted again, chuckling at the sight of Dan blushing.

 

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Oh Gosh how could I forget to mention, big THANKS to my betareader KittyKaty! <3


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